Tariq Tarey is currently the Director of Refugee Social Services at Jewish Family Services in Columbus, Ohio. He serves on Ohio’s New African Immigrants Commission and the Franklin County Board of Commissioner’s New American Advisory Council. 

Tariq is also a documentary photographer, skilled in both still photography and filmmaking.  

In 2006, Tariq’s photographic exhibit, Forlorn in Ohio, which documented the plight of Somali refugees, appeared at the Kiaca Gallery and Wright State University. 

Tariq’s exhibition “Bhutanese-Nepali Neighbors” was on display at the Ohio History Connection throughout 2017 and was nominated for the Community Arts Partnership Award by the Greater Columbus Arts Council. In 2018 “Bhutanese-Nepali Neighbors” exhibit won the Ohio Museums Associations best of show.

He currently has exhibitions showing at the Rutherford B. Hayes Museum in Freemont, Ohio and at Otterbein University.  Several of his images now belong to the permanent collection of the Columbus Museum of Art. 

Tariq directed “Women, War and Resettlement: Nasro’s Journey,” which was aired on WOSU Public Television in 2012.  Moreover, Tariq’s film, “The Darien Gap,” was shown in the 2nd United States Conference on African Immigrant and Refugee Health. 

Among Tariq’s honors are the South Side Settlement House’s Arts Freedom Award in 2006 and the Ohio Art Council’s Individual Artist Award in 2008 and in that same year Tariq won the Greater Columbus Art Council’s Individual Artist Award.

Currently, Tariq is working on a book project documenting representative refugee populations in Central Ohio.

Tariq Tarey
tariqtarey@gmail.com